Over 38 days, he picked up bees with forceps and held them against various body parts (his own, at least partially to avoid running afoul of ethical rules and regulations governing human testing). Each angry bee stinger was left in for a full minute, with Smith rating his self-inflicted stings on a 1-10 scale. He also inflicted "calibrating" stings on his forearms before and after each session. Each tested body part, 25 in total, was stung three times over the course of the experiment. (He ultimately decided against stinging a 26th body part, his eyeball, after an adviser cautioned he might lose his vision.)

The worst place to be stung? The nostrils scored a 9.0 out of 10, followed by his upper lip (8.7) and penis (7.3). The best places to get stung were also generally the least likely to be visited by bees: the skull (usually covered by hair), the tip of his middle toe (usually covered by shoes), and his upper arm (yeah, bees could get to this one), earning only a 2.3 each.